It has been a transformational six years on Seattle’s waterfront.
In 2019, runners and walkers took part in a race, which ended on the Alaskan Way Viaduct. Joy Shigaki, the CEO of Friends of Waterfront Park says the event happened just a few months before the viaduct was torn down.
“A lot of people remember how beautiful it was to do the final walk or run and take in and mark the historic moment in our city, for this next-generation project which was Waterfront Park,” said Shigaki.
Fast forward to this year, and Friends of Waterfront Park and Seattle-based Brooks Running are hosting another race. The Meet Me at Waterfront Park 5k takes place Saturday, May 31. The event kicks off the 20 acre park’s first full summer open to the public.
‘Locals coming back’
The park is on the edge of downtown Seattle and stretches from the Olympic Sculpture Park along Elliot Bay to the ferry terminal. It includes a new overlook walk connecting the area to Pike Place Market. There are protected bike lanes, a wide promenade for pedestrians and new parks on Piers 57 and 62.
Shigaki recently met me on the waterfront. The organization she leads, Friends of Waterfront Park is the non-profit fundraiser that is also helping to manage the park. Shigaki was born in Seattle, moved away, and then returned home in the fall of 2022 to help the project cross the finish line.
Joy Shigaki Interview Highlights
On how Waterfront Park fits in with the rest of downtown
This is a major part of the downtown transformation. It felt a little audacious to say the park was part of that. But what I recognize is this integration, and what you're starting to see who is down here: locals coming back, people coming from all over the county and multi counties. It really is transforming this space, and we're becoming a world class city by having a world class urban park. And that was the vision that they started back in 2009: to create a boring tunnel that allowed us to create this extraordinary 20-acre park on top of where the viaduct was.
When the Overlook Walk opened in the fall, we just saw thousands and thousands of people come, who were in awe because they had not been down because of the pandemic or had not been down because of construction.
On how the waterfront accommodates pedestrians, runners and cyclists
A lot of the design decisions were based on the community's input. Having transportation alternatives, biking is a big part of that, ensuring that wheeled vehicles are standing off the promenade and people can enjoy a long walk in that entire one mile area. It was always intended that they knew lots of people would come. So how do you build a design that reflects what you want, and invite people to do?
On how Waterfront Park will measure success
We’ll be taking a look at overall numbers of who's coming. We'll be assessing the park experience, how people are experiencing the park. We've been doing park surveys, visitor surveys, since probably 2022 asking people why they came. How did they get here? What was their overall experience? That will continue to be a part of that. But [we will] continue to evaluate some critical impact numbers as well as qualitative experiences will be important to us. We know parking might be a challenge. We know we want to encourage people to take public transit. We're going to still be solving for things. So this is not, ‘everything's going to be done’, and I think we're also going to be figuring out how we learn from people coming down this summer. It's going to be packed, and people are going to love it, but we're going to learn a lot.
On the future of funding for public spaces
We are seeing, obviously, a trend in public funding and budgets being contracted. But having a nonprofit, the public private partnership between Friends of Waterfront Park…we are the nonprofit will continue to help elevate philanthropy. We're raising $170 million towards the campaign for Waterfront Park, which is $110 million towards the build. I think it's really important knowing that there is a real stretch in government funding. You need the public-private partnership to work, and that means you have a nonprofit who's really bringing in philanthropic and private support to make sure that these projects can be well-funded and taken care of.
Meet Me At Waterfront 5k run/walk and community celebration starts at 10 a.m. Saturday.
